Thursday, March 19, 1998Last modified at 2:21 a.m. on Thursday, March 19, 1998

Plano Senior High School students, clockwise from left, Brandy Schaefer, Geri Parris, Kristin Altman, Olivia Outhavong, Lisa Conaway and Caroline Griffin visit during their lunch break in Plano, Texas, Tuesday, March 17, 1998. Plano, a prosperous Dallas suburb, has again been thrust into the national spotlight this week after the Plano Police Department announced the conclusion of a seven-month investigation into drug trafficking in Collin County. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)Plano citizens: Drug issue overblown

PLANO (AP) - A series of heroin deaths has heaped unfair notoriety on this affluent Dallas suburb, where drug abuse is no worse than in any other community, students and parents say.

"I don't even tell people I'm from Plano anymore," 16-year-old Plano Senior High School student Geri Parris said while eating lunch at a nearby Taco Bueno.

"It's a bad rap for us," she said. "They know about Plano in Iowa. It's like we only do drugs and drink because we have money, when that's not true."

Added Plano student Brandon Proctor, 18: "We have hundreds of friends and none of them use drugs."

Plano, a prosperous suburb of 188,000 people just north of Dallas, garnered national attention after a dozen youths died of heroin overdoses since 1996. The city is home to a number of big corporations, including Frito-Lay, Dr Pepper/Seven Up, J.C. Penney, EDS and Kimberly-Clark.

Heroin, which is quickly replacing crack as the nation's

drug of choice, has become popular because it's cheap and can be snorted or smoked, which is more appealing than injecting it, Bob Weiner, a spokesman for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Wednesday.

All 12 Plano youths died from snorting heroin.

"Plano has had a noticeably high spot situation on heroin, which is very dangerous and very troubling, but heroin is a rising national problem. And, that is the point," Weiner said.

Plano police and school officials initiated a seven-month investigation in what was partly a response to the overdoses. Undercover officers - their identities hidden even from principals and teachers - posed as students at the two senior high schools. Plano police would release no other details about "Operation Rockfest," other than to say it began at the start of the school year.

The operation resulted in 84 cases against 33 adults and four juveniles, mostly for felony drug delivery charges. Fourteen suspects are Plano school students, police said.

However, the investigation netted little in the way of narcotics: Four ounces of marijuana, 11 grams of heroin and 17 grams of cocaine.osorovakdndm

Police and school officials acknowledged at a news conference Monday that drugs were not found to be rampant on the two 5,000-student senior campuses, which educate only juniors and seniors. Most of the cases involved narcotics that were introduced offcampus at parties and other social events, Police Chief Bruce Glasscock said.

"Let's be realistic, drugs are on campus," Plano schools Superintendent Doug Otto said. "eliBut it's not to the degree that people think it is."nefistnsiat

Duke said the operation was not targeted at major suppliers, but meant to be a deterrent.

"When a fellow student is arrested and taken out of class," he said, "we hope students would see this not as something to be taken lightly."